Write Out Loud at Middleton tonight
Katie Haigh is the guest poet at Write Out Loud Middleton on Sunday 30 June, at the Ring O’ Bells pub, St Leonard’s Square, Middleton, starting at 7pm. Contact gemmathepoet@hotmail.co.uk. Entry is a £2 donation. More details and map
30th June 2013
Benjamin Zephaniah is sell-out hit for Ledbury poetry festival
A number of events, including Benjamin Zephaniah and Tony Benn’s Desert Island Poems, have already sold out at this year’s Ledbury poetry festival, taking place from 5-14 July. It's one of the best-loved poetry festivals around; indeed, “the best in the country”, according to Andrew Motion. Oth...
30th June 2013
Deadline nears for £250 Poetry Space competition
The 30 June deadline is nearing fast for the £250 Poetry Space competition, to be judged by Martyn Crucefix. Send poems of up to 40 lines by email with accompanying cover sheet to include name, add...
25th June 2013
Pointing Scotland's emerging poets in the right direction
Bloodaxe editor Neil Astley will be speaking at the Poet’s Compass, a conference for Scotland’s emerging poets, on Saturday 29 June at CCA, Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow.
Topics include the state...
25th June 2013
Paperless at festival - but no complaints about the Ravenstonedale loos
I have just spent the weekend at one of the north’s best-kept secrets – Ravenstonedale festival, in Kirkby Stephen, Cumbria. A small but perfectly formed festival with approximately 500 punters, se...
25th June 2013
Love, loss, rock and roll, and other four-letter words
Write down as many four-letter words as you can in five minutes, and use these to write a poem. Do not add any non-four-letter words. Use your imagination: seek out the more unusual, less obvio...
25th June 2013
Cooper Clarke, Armitage, McMillan ... and Winston, too
John Cooper Clarke, Simon Armitage and Ian McMillan are the headline poetic names at Hebden Bridge arts festival, running from Saturday 22 June until Sunday 30 June. And Hebden Bridge’s own Winston...
25th June 2013
Net stretches across north at writers awards in Newcastle
Poets Ian Duhig, from Leeds, Carolyn Jess-Cooke (Whitley Bay), Geraldine Monk and Susannah Evans, both from Sheffield, and Zaffar Kunial (Shipley) were among the cash-winning writers announced this...
20th June 2013
Loose Muse spreads the love: today Manchester, tomorrow?..
Women poets who attended Loose Muse’s first open mic night in Manchester earlier this year are being urged to submit poems to the women-only group’s latest, fourth anthology.
There were an esti...
20th June 2013
Diana Gittins and the poetry of poultry
Diana Gittins will be reading from her Happenstance pamphlet, Bork!, a collection of poems about keeping chickens, in Wadebridge, Cornwall, on Saturday 22 June, at a joint event put on by Camelford...
20th June 2013
Poets urged to show support for Turkish protesters
Poets were urged to show their sympathy for protesters in Istanbul, as riot police fired tear gas and water cannon at protesters occupying Taksim Square, arrested protesting lawyers, and entered Ge...
20th June 2013
Dear Boy: Emily Berry, Faber and Faber
Dear Boy, the debut collection by Emily Berry, is made up of poems that put on outfits and adopt personas as easily as the best con artist, all ultimately relating the story of middle class, 20-som...
19th June 2013
Rage against the machinations at Write Out Loud Marsden tonight
Rage, rage against the dying of the light; or the lying of the diet, or any other rage that takes your fancy, for such was the theme chosen for them as wants one, for Write Out Loud at Marsden on W...
19th June 2013
Angela Topping and Louise Fazackerley at Write Out Loud Sale tonight
Angela Topping and Louise Fazackerley are the guest poets at Write Out Loud Sale, hosted by Rod Tame, on Tuesday 18 June, at 7.30pm at the Waterside arts centre, Sale. Make sure you arrive early to...
18th June 2013
Write Out Loud at Stockport tonight
Members of Stockport Write Out Loud will be sharing their poems again at Stockport art gallery on Monday, 17 June, at 7pm. Entry is a £1 donation. More details and Map
17th June 2013
The Write Out Loud interview: Tony Walsh
John Hegley has described the poems in his first full collection as “ fired and inspiring”. He is a towering presence – in every sense – on the performance poetry scene. Tony Walsh – aka Longfella ...
15th June 2013
Guitar n' Verse Out Loud: Jeff and Andy team up at Cadence and Didsbury festivals
There are two nights coming up combining Guitar n' Verse and Write Out Loud and featuring Jeffarama! aka Jeff Dawson and Andy N and their A Means To An End music and verse. On Saturday 15 June they...
13th June 2013
Paterson and Herbert head powerful line-up at Bridlington
A powerhouse of poets, including Don Paterson, WN Herbert, Andrew McMillan, Daljit Nagra, Hannah Lowe, Helen Mort, Ian McMillan, Jackie Kay, Jo Shapcott, Pascale Petit, Rhian Edwards, and many more...
13th June 2013
Deadline nears for Living With Dementia poetry competition
The deadline for entering Living With Dementia magazine’s poetry competition is 30 June. Entries are limited to one per person, and Ian McMillan will be judging. More details
13th June 2013
Nicola Slee to judge Manchester Cathedral's poetry competition
The deadline is 28 June to enter Manchester Cathedral’s £450 poetry competition. The judge is poet and theologian Nicola Slee, pictured. The competition guidelines say: “Poems submitted should be b...
13th June 2013
Write Out Loud at Wigan tonight
Isobel will be compering and keeping in order the Write Out Loud regulars and irregulars on Thursday, 13 June, at the Tudor House hotel in Wigan. The open mic night begins at 8.30pm and entry is fr...
13th June 2013
Carol Ann Duffy's poem to mark 60th anniversary of coronation
The poet laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, has delivered a poem to mark the 60th anniversary of the Queen’s coronation. You can read it here
11th June 2013
Sean Borodale to judge Wells literature festival competition
Sean Borodale will be judging the Wells festival of literature poetry competition, which has a deadline of 31 July. The prizegiving will take place on Sunday 13 October during the festival. More de...
11th June 2013
On your bike: cycling poems wanted for Yorkshire anthology
Poems about bicycles and cycling are wanted for an anthology that will celebrate the Tour de France Grand Depart coming to Yorkshire next year. Otley Word Feast wants poems as soon as possible, wi...
9th June 2013
The Write Out Loud interview: Ira Lightman
He has been dubbed the poetry sleuth, tracking down plagiarism online and establishing the scale of the misdeeds of serial offenders such as Christian Ward and David R Morgan. Some in the poetry wo...
9th June 2013
Poets to talk about rare toad and tropical birds at London Zoo
Poets Glyn Maxwell and Ruth Padel will be revealing their thoughts about the Mallorcan midwife toad and humming birds, bleeding heart doves and amethyst starlings in separate talks at the London Zo...
9th June 2013
Tony Harrison at Big Bookend festival in Leeds
Tony Harrison will be headlining the Big Bookend festival in Leeds, closing the festival on Sunday 9 June at 7.30pm at West Yorkshire Playhouse. An anthology of young Leeds writers, LS13, will be l...
9th June 2013
Manchester's Poets and Players launch first competition
Manchester’s Poets and Players has launched its first poetry competition, with the judge Jacob Polley, a first prize of £400, and the deadline Friday 5 April. Poets and Players, one of Manchester’s...
9th June 2013
Pussy Riot protest anthology a winner at indie lit awards
Catechism: Poems for Pussy Riot, a collection of poems assembled to support a jailed Russian punk band and published in association with English PEN, won the title of best poetry anthology at the S...
6th June 2013
Emma Decent tells of her family secrets on Radio 4
Performance poet Emma Decent appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Midweek programme with Libby Purves on Wednesday 5 June to talk about her one-woman show Beyond Dreams of Aberystwyth, and its autobiographica...
6th June 2013
Voting deadline nears for Morning Star's Protest in Poetry award
The deadline is Thursday 6 June at noon to take part in voting for the Morning star newspaper’s first award for Protest in Poetry. Voters are invited to nominate whatever they think has made the bi...
5th June 2013
Star poetry lineup announced for Glastonbury
Kate Tempest, John Hegley, Luke Wright, Kate Fox, Tony Walsh, Attila the Stockbroker, The Antipoet, and Dizraeli are in the stellar line-up of poets just announced for Glastonbury. All tickets are ...
5th June 2013
Offa's Press wants Shropshire poems for anthology
A publisher is looking for poems about Shropshire for an anthology that will include "heritage" poems by AE Housman and Wilfred Owen as well as contemporary voices. Poets interested in submitting w...
3rd June 2013
